‘Did COVID-19 exist before the scientists?' Towards curriculum theory now

We live in an era that normalized absurdism and abnormality. From successive devastating economic and environmental havoc, the world is now before a pandemic with a lethal footprint throughout the planet. The pandemonium became global. This paper situates the current COVID-19 pandemic within the context of an endless multi-plethora of devastating sagas pushing humanity into an unimaginable great regression. In doing so, the paper examines, how such pandemic reflects the very colors of an intentional epistemological blindness that frames Eurocentric reasoning, which crippled the political economy of global capitalism deepening and accelerating a never-ending and non-stop crisis that started in 2008. The paper explores also the social construction of the current pandemic and argues for alternatives ways to think and to do education and curriculum theory alternatively to challenge Modern Western Eurocentric reasoning. In doing so, advances itinerant curriculum theory as a just approach, a just alter-curriculum ‘theory now', one that respects the world's pluri-epistemological diversity, and aims to walk way from utopias framed within the borders determined by coloniality towards an anti-decolonial climax, and ‘heretopia'.

Guest editorial: Playful literacies across ages and contexts: new horizons for pleasure, affect, and living texts

During the COVID-19 pandemic, educators observed increased student stress and disconnection in formal learning environments, whereas young people turned to playing, gaming and collaborative writing to cultivate connections during this upheaval. Using Thiel's previous theoretical work, Woodard and colleagues explore playful dramatizing, multimodal composing and science learning through one fourth-grade girl's video about food chains. [...]Beauchemin and Qin take up affect as relational and performed forces that emerge from the inbetweenness among people, objects and material and discursive contexts. [...]in "Press Play,” community leader Karl André St-Victor describes how playful practices at Chalet Kent, a community youth center in Montréal, sustain strong senses of belonging and companionship among youth and center staff.

Increasing the Representation of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour as Students in Psychology Doctoral Programmes

Additionally, emerging research regarding the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that racial inequities caused by racism (e.g., overrepresentation within frontline employment) cause BIPOC communities to be more exposed to and less protected from the virus, placing them at a higher risk of infection and death, a devastating phenomenon coupled with the already present health disparities caused by racism in the Canadian health care system (Amoako & MacEachen, 2021;Cénat, Kogan, et al., 2021;Denice et al., 2021). In this article, we will discuss, as others have noted, how Canadian graduate programmes must assume responsibility and become directly involved in understanding, offsetting, and preventing the harm of systemic racism, oppression, and discrimination, as demanded by the ethics and principles of psychology itself (APA Division 45 Warrior's Path Presidential Task Force, 2020;APA Council of Representatives, 2021;Canadian Psychological Association [CPA], 2018;Ritchie & Sinacore, 2020). Racialization is about social perceptions-how people perceive others based on their presumed race or ancestry (Pendakur, 2005). [...]race is a socially constructed concept-not a fixed or scientific identity, despite mainstream North American society operating as if it is an accepted truth (Gonzalez-Sobrino & Goss, 2019;Haeny et al., 2021). [...]we use the term BIPOC to encompass the following groups: BIPOC (i.e., South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, Latin American, Arab, Southeast Asian

Toa and the Wero: The Gang and Community Contract Ko Tū a Waho, ko Rongo a Roto. Tū Outside, Rongo Inside

This article is about the gang-community contract in Aotearoa New Zealand, and asks whether the patch can be used for good. To date, little academic attention has been given to the role that predominantly Māori patched street gangs occupy in their communities or the role that re-Indigenisation plays in the trajectory of community-based work by such groups. Using the wero (challenge) as a metaphor for the gang-community contract, a study of gang membership is applied to assess notions of toa (warrior) and the warrior culture, while asking whether such contemporary expressions and embodiment of toa can be used in the form of gang membership for the betterment of the broader society;essentially using the patch for good. Through the application of two Māori concepts-toa and wero-as metaphor, this article will explore the relationship between contemporary expressions of the toa and the challenges they face in the current climate of socioeconomic inequality and COVID-19. Lastly, this article provides a case study of the Black Power Movement Whakatane chapter to identify processes of re-Indigenisation and the role the patch plays in restoring the mana of marginalised communities.

Ruling Abstractions and Unruly Spaces

Olga Tokarczuk, The Book of Jacob A character in Olga Tokarczuk's magnificent novel The Book of Jacob refers to the time that is "not yet" historical;a time that is, in some ways, frozen, and as such excluded from the developmentalist and civilizationist historical narratives. Since its inception, the world-systems perspective has been concerned with the problem of historical time. In world-systems analysis, time and space are seen as substantive properties of social relations, and the network of relations that comprises the capitalist world economy produces its own temporal spatial and temporal configurations. [...]Çaǧrı Ídiman in the second part of his essay on Tributary World-Ecologies, brings into sharper historical relief the distinctive element of capitalist worldecology, distinguished from other world-ecologies by simultaneous transformation of productive relation and mode of appropriation of labor and nature.

MOBILITY, SPATIAL THINKING, AND MENA'S GLOBAL INTERCONNECTIVITY: A PRIMARY SOURCE ROUNDTABLE

In October of 2021, after well over a year of COVID-19-related travel restrictions imposed with unusual rigor by authorities in Italy, the two of us (Giancarlo Casale and Cyrus Schayegh) organized a modest one-day symposium at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence.1 The event brought together nine PhD students and postdocs from our two institutions (the EUI and the Geneva Graduate Institute), all engaged in research in Middle Eastern history in a variety of periods and geographies, as well as three discussants, Malika Dekkiche (University of Antwerp), Ulrike Freitag (Freie Universität Berlin and Zentrum für Moderner Orient, Berlin), and Jan Hennings (Central European University). To be sure, global history is, in principle, a field created with the intention of pushing beyond Eurocentric understandings of history.3 Nonetheless, in practice it has faced increasing criticism for relying too much on Anglophone bodies of secondary literature and on primary sources mainly in Western languages, particularly English, in ways that are frequently at odds with the methodologies of area studies. [...]rather counterintuitively, the "global" perspective of global history has on the whole not resulted in the kind of deep engagement with non-Western sources and research practices that might disrupt the Eurocentric assumptions upon which traditional historiography has been constructed.4 For institutional reasons, the implications of this methodological challenge were felt particularly acutely by the two of us, both Middle East historians in graduate programs specifically focused on training in global and international history. [...]MENA offers an unusually rich spatial setting to think through, or rethink, historically contingent connections, and to propose new avenues of comparison.8 Second, as a region MENA itself is highly heterogeneous and self-evidently constructed, inviting complex thinking about the definitional role of "regions"-whether maritime or land-based, whether global or world or international or even subnational - as the basic building blocks of global history. [...]due to its physical proximity to Europe, MENA provides an ideal vantage point for "inverting the gaze" and challenging some basic Eurocentric assumptions still implicit in global approaches to history - including Europe's own status as a stable, geographically defined space distinct from other world regions.

Maranga Mai! Education - what needs to change?

Culturally safe clinical placements, support for out-of-town learners, mentoring and earning while studying are key to retaining Maori and Pasifika nursing students, says third-year NorthTec bachelor of nursing (BN) student Anna Clarke, (Te Aupöuri, Te Rarawa and the Tongan village of Vaini). * Accommodation: The temporary closure of NorthTec's marae due to COVID was identified by Maori and Pasifika students as the biggest challenge for out-of-town tauira. * Mentoring and peer support: Nursing lecturer Pipi Barton Grants, earn-as-you learn, an indigenised nursing curriculum and flexiblity for transient students are key to recruiting more Maori into nursing, says NorthTec nursing lecturer and PhD student Pipi Barton, (Ngāti Hikairo ki Kawhia). * Grants: "The number one issue is economic hardship particularly for Māori and Pasifika ... we need to alleviate hardship immediately by giving grants to Māori and Pacific students, introduce earn-as-you-learn, first for Māori and Pacific, then for everybody." * Indigenised curricula: "The curriculum is very Euro-centric - polytechs enrol Māori but don't retain Māori . . . nursing programmes are going to become more indigenised, with Te Pukenga". * A unified curricula across schools: "A unified curriculum so no matter where you are, if you move around, it's not going to impact on you negatively or have any additional costs" - Barton is involved with writing the unified nursing curricula for Te Pukenga Pacific nursing educator Tania Mullane "Curriculum can be transformational." "If you want to increase the workforce, then you have to provide some kind of support for students in health care, when they're in clinical practice." Whitireia's head of Pacific nursing Tania Mullane says the BN Pacific enjoys higher than average graduation rates - almost 80 to 90 per cent compared to around two-thirds nationally - to which Mullane attributes a "wraparound" approach.

Decolonising Myself: Navigating the Researcher-Activist Identity in the Urban South Pacific

This paper charts my path from observer to action researcher – and my ex post realisation that a transition had happened in my work. This transition happened on the fly, in the field, without me critically reflecting on it at the time, while I was studying evictions in Port Vila, Vanuatu, South Pacific. My ethics came into direct conflict with my research approach, and I chose to change my approach. I theorise my transformation in the modernity/coloniality literature and close by offering strategies to students and other researchers who are looking for ways to engage more deeply with, and give something back to, the communities they study.

Epistemological freedom: activating co-learning and co-production to decolonise knowledge production

Purpose>The purpose of the paper is to challenge and address the limitations of the traditional system of knowledge production that is embedded in disaster and climate change research studies, and research studies in general. It argues that knowledge production in research processes conforms to colonialist thinking or west-inspired approaches. Such a system often results in the omission of crucial information due to a lack of participation, inclusion and diversity in knowledge production.Design/methodology/approach>The paper proposes practices and recommendations to decolonise knowledge production in disaster and climate change research studies, and research studies in general. It provides a brief literature review on the concepts of decolonisation of knowledge and epistemological freedom, and its origins;assesses the need for knowledge decolonisation, emphasising on the integration of local knowledge from grassroots women-led initiatives in instances where disasters and crises are being investigated in vulnerable communities, especially in the Global South;and finally the paper proposes to decolonise knowledge production through activating co-learning and co-production. The practices have been developed from the work of relevant authors in the field and case studies.Findings>Through a brief literature review on previous discourses on the topic of knowledge decolonisation and analysis of recent case studies on disaster and crisis management and community resilience, the paper finds that there exists a lack of pluralism and inclusion in epistemology which limits the pursuit to obtain the whole truth in the production of knowledge in research studies.Originality/value>This paper adds to the discussion of decolonisation of knowledge in the field of disaster and climate change research studies, and research processes in general. It provides in-depth analyses of recent case studies of emerging community resilience and local practices that were crucial in the face of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis.

The quest for curricularisation of uMaskandi Zulu traditional music in higher education in the context of Africanisation

In the past decades, the debate on decolonisation and Africanisation has principally been discoursed on the African continent. There has been a growing quest for curriculum decolonisation in South African higher education and developing an Africanised curriculum. However, the decolonisation agenda has paid minimal attention to curricularising African indigenous music in higher education institutions. This neglect could be attributable to various reasons. The main problem faced by African indigenous music today is that higher education institutions are dominated by Western orthodoxy. The neglect of indigenous African music such as uMaskandi Zulu traditional music raises questions about the authenticity of developing an Africanised curriculum. Therefore, this article discusses the quest for curricularisation of uMaskandi Zulu traditional music in higher education in the context of Africanisation. This article implements a qualitative content analysis grounded in evaluating and examining existing documents on a similar subject under the guidance of the research question. This article argues that since curriculum transformation and decolonisation are perceived as important subjects in the quest for curricular Africanisation, there is necessary to curricularise uMaskandi Zulu traditional music. This article concludes by affirming that uMaskandi Zulu traditional music plays an essential role in the sustainability of the economy and entertainment industry. This article further recommends that the curriculum developers, policymakers, and other stakeholders consider developing a uMaskandi Zulu traditional music curriculum.

SOUTH AFRICAN TRADITIONAL HEALERS PERCEPTIONS OF HOMOSEXUALITY

This qualitative study on traditional healers' perceptions of homosexuality has contributed to indigenous knowledge in the Northern Sotho ethnic group in South Africa. An exploratory research design using snowball sampling was employed. The study was underpinned by Afrocentric theory. The sample consisted of ten traditional healers, seven females and three males. Data was collected using individual, face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse the data which yielded several major themes and sub-themes: Theme 1: Homosexuality threatens family structure and values, sub-theme 1.1 Homosexuality and thepreservation offamily bloodlines and/or surname, sub-theme 1.2 Homosexuality and procreation. Theme 2: Homosexuality is regarded as taboo and a disgrace, sub-theme 2.1: Homosexuality and Northern Sotho culture, sub-theme 2.2 Homosexuality is un-Godly. Theme 3: Homosexuality and western culture, sub-theme 3.1 Homosexuality and modernisation, sub-theme 3.2 Homosexuality and responsibility. The research discovered that the traditional healers had negative views towards homosexuality and offered traditional explanations for this. However, one of the healers said they would help homosexuals who approached them. A recommendation for future research is to find out perceptions of the homosexual community in terms of how they are treated by traditional healers.

Black immigrants in the United States: Transraciolinguistic justice for imagined futures in a global metaverse

As the world continues to experience the recent wave of racial reckoning and its associated backlash, the field of applied linguistics has been called upon to renew efforts through which language functions as an avenue for redemption and restoration of humanity and of the world. Acknowledging the role of racialization in the language-related challenges faced nationally and globally has spurred on a wave of examinations that extend beyond a focus on the intellect and that increasingly allow for a simultaneous grappling with what it means to advance language solutions that equally center human sensitivity and the body. Among such acknowledgments have been the effects of racism on language use by immigrants, including immigrants of color, many of whom are often introduced into the U.S. as “languageless.” We operate now on the verge of an imminent global metaverse within which the world will soon largely exist, provoking questions about the degree to which language, and racialized language, will continue to function as the primary mechanism for operating in a future world order. Given this impetus, I draw from the Black immigrant experience in the United States in this brief essay to demonstrate why the future of applied linguistics in a global metaverse must be concerned with “transraciolinguistic justice” that: (1) creates opportunities beyond racialized [language] as a function of the imminent global metaverse;(2) disrupts the racialization of [language] for relegating citizenship based on national norms as a function of civic engagement;and (3) dismantles racialized [language] and borders that hold up the exclusion of “foreignness” to transform the relational experience. The impending reality of a global metaverse that lays flat distinctions among migrants while also introducing a plethora of spaces where racialized language further functions as subtext in a nonmaterial world calls for a (re)thinking of what it will mean to instruct, assess, plan for, and preserve [languages] in a soon to be, predominantly, virtual global existence. Civic and legal engagement in a global metaverse that can potentially transcend racialized language allows for the disruption of perceptions that advocate a lack of connectivity of diverse human publics across national and global borders. Relational healing through a focus on transraciolinguistic justice in a global metaverse represents an opportunity to restore the brokenness of the oppressed and cultivate opportunities for building bridges across diverse realities, critical to the abandonment of centuries of, and the introduction of, an era of peace. To the degree that the field of applied linguistics is prepared to engage transraciolinguistic justice, will determine, in large part, the extent to which it adjusts to a largely virtual world.

RE-CONFIGURING SOUTH AFRICAN PATENT LAWS IN SEARCH OF AN AFROCENTRIC APPROACH FOR EXPANDING ACCESS TO ESSENTIAL PATENTED MEDICINES IN THE COVID-19 ERA

In an effort to fight the epidemiological health crisis precipitated by COVID-19, South Africa has declared a state of national disaster under the Disaster Management Act 52 of 2002 enabling the government to lawfully impose lockdowns and take other necessary measures. This article argues that for South Africa to succeed in overcoming the said crisis as well as the other pandemics facing the country, there is a need to re-configure the country 's patent laws based on an Afrocentric approach to expanding access to essential medicines. It contends that South Africa's current patent laws are based on problematic theories of intellectual property law largely steeped in a Eurocentric regulatory construct which advances neo-colonial economic interests contrary to the country's desperate need to ensure access to essential medicines. The article argues for acceptance of justificatory indigenous and communalistic theories that enable the enactment of intellectual property rights anchored on the philosophy of Ubuntu as supplementary to some of the extant western individualistic notions currently underpinning patents on essential medicines. Such a humanising approach, together with other complimentary measures, has the potential to re-orient and re-engineer the concept of patents on essential medicines and the concomitant regulatory framework thereby promoting access to medicines in the COVID-19 era and beyond.

Histories of Dirt: Media and Urban Life in Postcolonial Lagos

Eze reviews Histories of Dirt: Media and Urban Life in Postcolonial Lagos by Stephanie Newell.

The Challenge of World Theatre History By Steve Tillis,. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020 ;pp. xi + 320, 5 illustrations. $119.99 cloth, $84.99 paper, $89 e-book

The Challenge of World Theatre History by Steve Tillis is essential reading for professors of theatre history seeking to restructure course offerings in a manner that is not merely inclusive, but also interconnected and balanced. The resulting textbooks and courses continue to center European forms, individuals, histories, and the written word at the expense of a more layered and comprehensive understanding across the entire world. Whereas the conditions surrounding theatre practice across time, geography, and culture have often exacerbated such erasure, the formulation of a world theatre history necessarily involves an approach that takes identity into account alongside the many other potential perspectives discussed by Tillis in his book.

Confronting the gated community: Towards a decolonial critique of violence beyond the paradigm of war

This article investigates the works of Dussel, Maldonado-Torres, and Mbembe as representatives of a tendency in the field of decolonial thought to assume the templates of warfare and the camp as the archetypal registers of violence in the contemporary world. Identifying this focus as the remnant of a Eurocentric vocabulary (the paradigm of war), the article proposes a shift from the language of warfare predominant in the field to a language of welfare. The article turns to the gated community (GC), instead of the camp, and the imperatives of (re)creation, instead of the logics of elimination, as new templates with which to make sense of modern/colonial violence. Moving beyond militaristic imagery, the analysis shows a form of violence that emerges as a response to the endless search for a life of convenience inside the walls of the GC. To this end, the article advances the concept of the dialect of disarrangement, the enforced but uneasy encounter between two subjectivities that inhabit the GC: the patrons (the homeowners who consume the easy life) and servants (the racialised service staff). In the GC, violence emerges in attempts to respond to this (in)convenient encounter via misrepresentations of both patrons and servants as out of their place.